Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
HomeSermonsOMG: God’s Immutability

OMG: God’s Immutability

Main Scripture passage: James 1:12-17

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Introduction

Why don’t you open your Bibles to James 1? Now you’re thinking, wait a minute, you already [audio unclear]

Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For [audio unclear] sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

(James 1:12, 15–17)

No variation or shadow of turning. This is one of the many verses in Scripture which tells us, when it says with God there’s no shadow, there’s no variation, there’s no turning, it means that God does not change. When we talk about God’s immutability, we’re talking about a quality which is not capable or susceptible of any kind of change, either increase or decrease, development, or any kind of what we call evolution, if you will. To be immutable means to be unchangeable, invariable—which is what James is saying, God does not vary—to be permanent. And I don’t know about you, but this is one of my favorite attributes of God. And we live in a world of change. Everything seems to change. The weather changes, the seasons change. As you get older, your body changes. Gravity takes hold. Relationships change, your health can change, your job can change. Everything seems to change. We live in a world of flux. This is one of the old dilemmas of philosophy. The original philosophers tried to understand the nature of change. Everything seems to change. But there’s one thing that never changes, and that is our God. Which is why He is called in Scripture, over and over and over, our Rock. He is solid. You have to think about that word rock, because the Scripture, as you know, was written in the Middle East. And when you go to the Middle East, you know what you see a lot of? Yeah, but you know what you see more of? Sand. And when you go walking through the sand, you can take a walk through the sand and turn around in an hour and you can’t find your way back, because your footsteps are already gone. Because the wind will blow across the sand and the landscape changes. And you read about Israel in the wilderness and it says they wandered 40 years. Now think about this. If you study the text, what you find out is they could have made it to the Promised Land in a matter of a couple weeks. Well, how in the world did they wander in the desert for 40 years? Because when you’re in the desert, the sands change. Everything shifts. Everything’s moving. So you walk, you turn around, your footsteps are gone because the wind is blowing over the sand. Jesus talks about two kinds of men. There are those that are foolish and those that are wise. And what is the difference between the two men? He says the foolish man builds his house on sand. But the wise man builds his house on the rock. So our God is a rock. Our God is solid, invariable, unchangeable. He does not evolve. He’s not capable of growth. So as we talk about the immutability of God, we have to understand it in reference to His person, who He is, His plans, what He does, and His promises, what He says.

God Does Not Change in His Person

First of all, think about immutability in light of God’s person. When we say that God is immutable, we mean that He never differs from Himself. Let me say that again, because if you haven’t had your Starbucks, you might not be able to follow this part. When we say that God is immutable, we mean that He never differs from Himself. He is what He is. Think about this. When God appeared to Moses, Moses is going to go to Pharaoh, and Moses is concerned about the reception in court, and he says, okay, God, what am I going to say to Pharaoh? Who am I going to say sent me? What is Your name? And God says to him, My name is I AM WHO I AM. Not I am who I will be, but I AM WHO I AM—a statement of God’s eternal and hence unchangeable nature. That’s who I AM. Who I AM is who I was, it’s who I AM, it’s who I will be. I AM WHO I AM. I’m immutable. He never differs from Himself.

Now when we think about things changing, when we think about character changing, we can think of moral change, and that means changing from worse to better or from better to worse, or we can think about what’s called constitutional change, that is, going from immature to mature or vice versa. Yet when we think about God, He is incapable of either kind of change, because He is perfectly holy. Now think about this. If God is perfectly holy, He can’t change for the better. He’s already holy. A perfectly holy being doesn’t get more holy. He’s already holy, completely holy. Nor can He change for the worse, because then He wouldn’t be holy, and hence He wouldn’t be God. Or we think about God’s infinity, which we’ve discussed earlier, that He is boundless, He’s endless. There’s no limit to Him in His essence or His attributes. So He cannot be more than He already is. How can an infinite being grow? Well, He can’t, because He’s infinite. God is self-existent, we’ve learned. That means He doesn’t depend on any external cause. He cannot be changed by anything external to Him. He cannot be forced to do something He doesn’t want to do. So James says here that with God there’s no variation or shadow of turning. So this applies to who He is in Himself, His essence, and also to His attributes. When we think of God, we think of a God who is righteous, who’s holy, who’s loving, who’s gracious, who’s merciful, and in all of these attributes they do not change. They do not change. In a changing world, He is the only thing, the one and only thing, that never changes.

God Does Not Change in His Purposes

God doesn’t change, secondly, in His purposes, His will, or His ways. He’s no less immutable in His plans. He’s infinite in wisdom, therefore there’s no error in His conception or design. He’s infinite in power; there can be no failure in their accomplishment. So when God wills something, there’s nothing that can hinder His will if He wills for that to take place, which is why the Word of God says, “The counsel of the Lord, that will stand.” That will stand. Now you might be thinking, wait a minute, doesn’t the Bible say God repents? Indeed, there are a number of texts which talk about God relenting—some versions, the older versions, say repenting—and one gets the impression that God changes His mind: oh shoot, I messed up. And of course, what the Bible is doing, [audio unclear] God is always righteous. Can I get an amen? I mean always, not sometimes, not 99.9% of the time. God is always righteous. So you know, it says in Ezekiel, if the righteous man turns from his ways, he’s going to be punished. But if the wicked man turns from his ways, he’s going to be blessed. So God—think of a horizontal line, and under the line is the line of judgment, and above the line is the line of blessing. So God threatens, if He will, like when He threatened Nineveh: 40 days, and Nineveh will be destroyed. Jonah goes, he preaches, the people repent, God doesn’t judge them. Did God change His mind? No, the people changed their mind. But God’s action, His threat, if you will, didn’t happen. But it’s not because He said, okay, I changed My plan. But rather, God observes men. And when a man changes, He adapts His treatment of them accordingly. So you think of this horizontal line, and when an individual, or think of a nation, which is gradually descending toward this line of judgment, judgment is coming, and then God sends a prophet or prophets, and He warns the people, and the people receive the warning, and then the people repent, and they reform, and they move away from the line. But let’s say God sends His prophets as the nation descends, and the nation doesn’t listen to God’s people, God’s prophet, God’s Word, and they descend below the line, and then God judges them. It looks like God is changing. Well, He was blessing us before, but now He’s not. But what’s changed is not God. He’s always righteous, always holy. What’s changed is men’s response to God. He must adapt His righteous will—and His will doesn’t change—to the moral changes in man. So when the wicked man becomes righteous, or the righteous becomes wicked, God’s treatment of them changes. But God is not changing, because His essential will is not changing. The sun is not fickle or partial because it melts the wax but it hardens the clay. The change is not in the sun. The change is in the object that it shines upon.

God Does Not Change in His Promises

Thirdly, God doesn’t change in His promises. His Word doesn’t change. What is true of God’s plans is also true of His promises. Now, when we think of the promises of God, we have to remember there’s two kinds. There’s unconditional, and then there is conditional. What do I mean? An unconditional promise is where God says, I will. I will. I’m going to do this, I will do this. I promise you I will. That’s it, end of story, right? A conditional promise has to do with God including if, or but. There is a condition attached to the promise. If you obey, then I will bless. We see numerous examples of these kinds of promises in the Scripture. Let’s just look at a couple. John 6, verse 37. Jesus says, we’ll start in verse 33:

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

(John 6:33–40)

Now let’s see a conditional promise. Go back to James 1, which we already looked at, right before the text we read. In James, James says this. He says in James chapter 1, verse 2:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.

(James 1:2–6)

So in other words, God gives wisdom. It’s a promise. If you ask God, God will give you wisdom. It’s a promise. But there’s a condition. He says, ask. Ask in faith. And so when we look at the promises of God, especially when we think about the issue of prayer, we have to understand that there are often conditions involved in us receiving the things God promises. Some are unconditional, some are conditional, but it doesn’t mean that God changes. Rather God has simply established various conditions. Faith is the preeminent requirement for the fulfillment of God’s conditional promises to us. And assuming the requirement of faith, it is not possible for God to be God and yet fail in the fulfillment of His promise. Did you hear what I said? If the condition of faith is met, it is not possible for God to be God, and yet fail in the fulfillment of His promise. If God fails to fulfill His promise, then He must have changed. And therefore He is no longer God, for God is immutable. There’s three things God cannot do. He cannot lie, die, or deny Himself. An immutable God does not and will not change His Word. If He has promised, He will fulfill it. Our obligation is to believe God’s Word, amen? Spurgeon said this. He said, if God had meant to run back from any promise, He would surely have run back from the promise to give His only begotten Son; and if He fulfilled that, what promise is there that He shall ever break? Common, sanctified common sense. If ever God was going to say, well I think I’m going to change My mind on this one, it would have been His promise to send a Redeemer, because by giving us His Son He sacrificed that which was most dear to Him. If ever God would have pulled back and said, no, I changed My mind, that would have been the time. But He fulfilled that promise. He fulfilled that one, amen? And so all the others He will fulfill, assuming the conditions are met.

Now sometimes when you talk about God’s attributes, people get this glassy look on their face, like, what in the world does this have to do with me, with life? I got to get up, got to go to work, got to take care of the kids, got to do this, got to do that. Who God is is everything. Who we worship is the most important thing about us. And when we think about God’s immutability, there are some very practical lessons. [audio unclear] God does not change. If His nature doesn’t change, His plan doesn’t change, His Word doesn’t change. And if God does not change, then we can stand upon the rock of God’s saving and immutable Word.

We Can Stand on His Word

Listen, when we talk about God, and we use that word God, how do we know what God is like? How do we really know? If you’re a Christian, you believe your knowledge of God comes from this book. This book tells us what God is like because it’s God’s own self-revelation. It is the inscrutable, mysterious, and we could say hidden God revealing Himself in His Word. This Word is true because God is true, but it’s also sure, it is faithful, it is solid, it is immutable, because it is the word of the immutable God. We can stand on God’s Word because we know that God doesn’t change. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. It says:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

(1 Peter 1:22–25)

This is what James says in James 1. It says by His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. In other words, when you hear the gospel preached and the Spirit takes that word and quickens your soul, the word brings life. Amen. You’re born again through the Word, because the Word is the gospel. And so having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides—and my version says lives and abides forever, because that’s the sense—because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass—what’s the grass do? You should see my lawn. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. God’s Word is imperishable. God’s Word is eternal. God’s Word endures forever. It says in Psalm 119, David is talking to God about His Word, he says, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” And one version said, Lord, Your Word is eternal. His judgments are faithful and true. Always, not sometimes, but always. The Word of God isn’t true—well, it’s true for me but not for you. It’s true. If it’s true, it’s true for all people, for all times. It is settled forever. The Word of God is a rock that we can stand on, and not only can stand on, it is the Word we must stand on. Because as I alluded earlier, when Jesus talks about the wise versus the foolish, it’s the wise man that builds his life on the rock. And that rock is the Word of God and the word of Christ.

So faith is the key. Now, when you talk about having faith in God versus having faith in His Word, you can’t separate the two. Because the Word reveals God. We only know what He’s like because of His Word. We only know His will because of His Word. We only know His ways because of His Word. So when we believe God, we’re really believing His Word, His self-revelation. To believe in God apart from His Word is to have an unsure word, an uncertain word. So when we believe in God, we’re really saying we believe in the revelation that God has given of Himself in His Word. You know, we live in a time when truth is not popular, amen? And some people could argue, well, it’s never been popular. And I think certain truths have never been popular. Certain truths about man’s fallen nature have never been popular. But we live in a time when not only is truth not popular, the concept of truth is not popular. So we don’t speak in terms of true and untrue. We speak in terms of values and opinions and ideas and causes and movements and all of these things, and we don’t often speak of what is true versus what is false. Many of you’ve been keeping up on the news about the scandal at Penn State. The greatest football coach in all of history was fired because of a scandal over sexual abuse of children. Very sad story. But one of the things that struck me as I was watching the news was I was thinking, you know, obviously this is very, very sad, this is just terrible, but this kind of thing went on for years, and people had hints of it, some people probably knew what was going on, and didn’t do anything about it. Very sad. But there is a silver lining in this cloud if people would pay attention. And the silver lining is this. We still have the capacity for moral outrage. Everybody, everybody denounced this behavior. Everybody spoke the language of outrage, spoke the language of right and wrong, spoke the language of good and evil. And we need to hear that more and more, amen. We have tolerated so much in the name of tolerance, in the name of love, in the name of pluralism. We’ve tolerated so much. Thank God that we’re not tolerating that. Thank God that responsible people, people that have the responsibility to elevate the moral tone of society because of their position—thank God for their outrage. There is such a thing as right and there is such a thing as wrong. There is such a thing as true and there is such a thing as false. And the Word of God is true. It is forever true. It is always true. It always will be true. It is true for everyone. It is true everywhere. It is true through and through. All Scripture is given by God. It’s inspired by God, that the man of God, the woman of God, would be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. That’s why, after describing the inspiration of the Scripture, Paul then goes on and says to Timothy, therefore, preach the Word. What we need today is more of the Word of God. What we need is the truth of God. We don’t need funny stories. We don’t need anecdotes. We don’t need advice. God did not give us the ten opinions, the ten suggestions, the ten ideas. He gave us ten commandments, and commandments are solid. They don’t change. It’s not okay now to commit adultery. It’s not okay now to steal. It’s not okay now to lie. These things were wrong thousands of years ago when God penned them with His finger, and they’re wrong today. They do not change. We live in a crazy time, do we not? Maybe not. When men are calling evil good and good evil. It’s crazy. And what is most disturbing to me is that so many people go along with the craziness. Which is why I was so encouraged by the outrage I saw, because people are willing to say there are lines that have to be drawn. Some things are unacceptable. You will not tolerate everything. The Word of God is true. It’s solid, it’s sure. And if you’re not in the Word, your mind is getting conformed to the world. It’s inevitable. It’s not a maybe, it’s a definite. You’ve got to be in the Word. You’ve got to be meditating, you’ve got to be thinking, you’ve got to be studying. You’ve got to be changing how you think, because if you don’t, the world will change how you think for you. It’s all around us. TV, radio, billboards, magazines, iPods, iPhones. It’s everywhere. The world is speaking to us, its philosophy and its values, everywhere. We must renew our minds in the Word of God. And then, renewing our mind in the Word, we must do it. We must stand on the Word of God as a sure word from heaven. We have to understand that when we don’t believe God’s Word, we’re really saying something about God’s character. We’re really saying to God, You change, or maybe You’re not wise, or something about God which is not flattering. We must believe because we have a sure foundation of our faith. That is the very character of God that never changes.

We Should Persevere

But secondly, we should persevere. That is, to have patience. And because God doesn’t change, we have to understand that He is faithful. And because He’s faithful, God will reward our faith and our perseverance. He will reward us. Look at Hebrews 6. This is one of my favorite passages. Over the years God has really used this in my life. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10, he says:

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

(Hebrews 6:10–12)

You know, sometimes if you’ve known the Lord for any length of time and you hit those rough spots in your life, and you’re like, wow, I really didn’t see this coming. I didn’t see the health problem, I didn’t see the financial loss, I didn’t see the relational conflict, I didn’t see these things coming. And you can get the feeling, while you’re dealing with difficulties in your life, that you’re standing on sand and you’re not standing on a rock. You know [audio unclear] And Spurgeon said, if there’s ever a promise God should have taken back, it would have been the promise of giving His Son. And what that tells us, if you want to know God’s attitude toward you, then stand under the cross. Go to Calvary and stand at the cross. Go to Calvary and look at Jesus on the cross. Go to Calvary and see His suffering and His bloodshed. Go to Calvary and look at Him dying for you. And remember that love is the same love that God has for me right now. The same love that put Jesus Christ on the cross is the same love God has for us now. The same love that caused God to literally drive the nails into the hands of His own Son is the same love that God has for you at this very moment. He doesn’t love you any less now than He did when He put His Son on the cross for you. “Oh, but you don’t know me.” Yeah, I’m very glad I don’t know you. I don’t want to know people’s dirty laundry, do you? But do you think God doesn’t know you? Do you think God doesn’t know every dirty little secret about your life? Every mean thought, every low and base thought, every selfish intention, every impulse of anger and greed and lust—you don’t think God knows this about you? Isn’t that true that we hide from one another because we feel that if people really knew how we were, they wouldn’t accept us? Isn’t that true? It’s human nature. But the Bible says that we are naked and open before Him. He knows exactly who we are, exactly what we are, and while beholding us as we are, His Son dies for us as we are. And that love of God that put Jesus Christ on the cross never wavers for you. For His Word says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” I loved you before the foundation of the world, for it was then that the Lamb was slain, and I will love you for eternity. Now that is something to meditate upon. That’s why God’s immutability is so important. It will get you through the storms, the changes, the trials, to know that whatever you’re experiencing, however God may vary your life, He Himself never varies. There’s no shadow. And where there’s no shadow, there’s no darkness. He never changes. It’s beautiful. Amen.

Our Changeableness Is a Source of Hope

What’s ironic, if you will, is when you think about God’s immutability, His not changing, it, of course, is one of those attributes which sets Him off from us, because we’re all about change. I mean, we change, we grow, we develop, we get better, we get worse, we mature, we evolve. But there’s a sense in which our changeableness is a source of hope. This is why when you read the account in Genesis, it’s very interesting. Go back and read the first few chapters. Adam and Eve fall, they sin. And God, He sets up the flaming sword, right? The cherubim with the flaming sword. And He says, because if they eat of the tree of life now, they’ll live forever like this, meaning they’ll be forever fallen. And the source of hope in our mutability is the fact that we can change from worse to better. [audio unclear] Repentance is hope. Repentance is renewal. Repentance is saying, thank God, I don’t have to be the [audio unclear] I can be different. I can be better. I can be stronger. I can be holier. I can change by the power of God and the grace of God, but I can change. Amen.

You know, God—and when you read His Word, it’s just shocking. I mean, His Word just blows your mind. If you really pay attention, it blows your mind. We have to understand that the Lord doesn’t vary. He doesn’t change. He’s always going to hate sin. You know the definition of insanity, right? You know the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. Well, you know the thing about God’s immutability is, because He doesn’t change, He’s never going to say your sin’s okay. So stop trying to convince Him it’s okay. I mean, He’s not going to agree. I mean, you know, if He didn’t, say, bang your head—some things aren’t going to change. And so we can follow this thing where, yeah, okay, well, you know, we think we can coax God and manipulate God and, you know, well, at least God’s going to show an exception. He doesn’t do that. There’s no change. There’s no favoritism. He’s always going to loathe sin. He detests it because He’s holy and He always will. And at the heart of, you know, it’s the heart of backsliding. The heart of backsliding is getting accustomed to sin. It’s changing our attitude to it. Something that maybe we thought was horrendous, and then, well, maybe it’s not so bad. And then we kind of get used to it. But God never gets used to it. God always hates sin. He always has and He always will. That’s why we look at that cross and see that God—the other attribute we’re seeing is the justice of God and the holiness of God. Amen. God hates sin just as much now as when He crucified His Son to destroy it. And yet the wonder is that He loves the sinner now as much as when He crucified His Son to save him. God doesn’t change, thank God, but we can. Thank God. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Lord, Your nature and Your essence is incomprehensible to us. And Lord, I know that the words that I’ve used today are so very inadequate to describe who You really are. Lord, we want to thank You that You’ve given us Your Word, that we’re not groping in darkness to know the unknown God. But You’ve given us Your Word, Lord, and You’ve revealed through Your Word and through Your Holy Spirit who You are, the great I AM, Jehovah, who’s manifested Himself in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. And I ask, God, that You grant to us—please, Father, grant to us—a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You. Open the eyes of our heart, Lord, to know Your glory, to see You. Not just with our intellect, but through the eyes of faith and the depth of our hearts, we would know the only true God. For people that know You, Your Word says, will do great things. So Lord, give us a hunger for Your Word, give us discipline to be in Your Word, and as we study Your Word, God, just continue to reveal to us the depths of who You are. Pray this for Your glory. Amen.